Oracle Asks to Add Evidence Against Google

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – Oracle wants to introduce new details on Android’s growing market dominance to its complaint over Google’s alleged use of copyrighted material in the mobile operating system, according to a new court filing. “In the last three years, Android has come to permeate the fabric of our society: it is in 80 percent of smartphones, in tablets, in televisions, on wearables, and even in cars. Google continues to infringe Oracle’s copyrights with these new versions,” Oracle’s July 22 letter to the court stated. Oracle first lodged a federal complaint against Google in August 2010, claiming Google borrowed from the Java platform developed and copyrighted by Sun Microsystems Inc., an Oracle-acquired company, in its Android operating system. Since that suit was filed five years ago, Google has released six major versions of Android and at least 40 new software version releases, Oracle claims. The company says Android has amassed one billion users and that Google reaps “untold profits” from those users through a variety of means. “At the same time that Android has become truly ubiquitous, the Java platform has suffered more than ever,” Oracle’s request to the court stated. Oracle argues it should be allowed to introduce new information to its complaint on Google’s “dramatically enhanced market position in search engine advertising and overall financial results from its continuing and expanded infringement.” In May 2012, a jury in San Francisco decided Google did infringe Oracle’s copyrights, but the 10-person panel deadlocked over whether the Java programming interfaces in question were considered “fair use.” U.S. District Judge William Alsup later ruled Oracle’s Java programming interfaces ineligible for copyrighting. However, a federal appeals court later reversed that ruling, deciding in May 2014 that Oracle’s programming interfaces were eligible for protection under U.S. copyright law. Google then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn that decision, but the high court last month declined to hear the case. A status conference for the case is scheduled for July 30. Google’s attorney, Donald Zimmer Jr. of King & Spaulding in San Francisco, did not immediately return requests for comment, nor did Oracle’s attorney, Annette Hurst of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe of San Francisco.